BOBCAT CALENDAR: The 1947 Cat-Griz Game was Special for Montana State Coach Clyde Carpenter, and Bobcat Bandmaster Lou Howard
10/18/2020 9:00:00 AM | Football
Clyde Carpenter remains the only man to head coach to lead Montana State and UM in football
A day-by-day look at Bobcat football history...
October 18
SPOTLIGHT: Winning the Cat-Griz football game has been about many things through the year - bragging rights, gaining a recruiting advantage, settling friendly wagers, In 1947, according to the Montana Exponent, it was about quiet.
"(It) took just two hours to bring to a halt all the noise that has ... become a tradition of the "Range Riders" from the University," the Exponent chronicled. Noise from "the 15 year jinx" that had enveloped the Bobcats since the team's 1932 win had become expectedly loud, and only grew until the third quarter of that 1947 Copper Bowl in Butte High's Naranche Stadium.
Jack O'Loughlin, the brother of Bobcat Jim O'Loughlin, opened the scoring for the University, plunging into the end zone from the two-yard line, but Buck Preuninger's missed extra point would look large. Strangely, Jack O'Loughlin's touchdown was set up by his own long punt return, which originated on the toe of his brother. After Bill Boston recovered a Grizzly fumble the Cats moved to UM's four-yard line. Gene Bourdet's "short dump pass" to Harry Perrigo and the ensuing PAT by former Grizzly Barney Berger nailed the PAT and the Cats had a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Another Bobcat with brotherly roots in the Copper Bowl made the game's next big play. Bill Zupan, whose brother Al had starred for the Cats a decade earlier before perishing in the war effort, returned a short Grizzly punt to the three-yard line, and fullback John Heine steamrolled into the end zone for the touchdown. The PAT failed after a penalty moved MSC back 15 yards, but the Cats led 13-6. A flurry of possession changes gave UM the ball, and on a fourth down Radokich caught a 58-yard pass for a touchdown. With the game in the balance, UM again missed the extra point. Bill Clawson told Zupan that he got a hand on it, and the lead was preserved. One more Grizzly drive ended near midfield on a fourth-down stop and the Bobcats ran out the clock for the victory.
Montana State's 13-12 win in 1947 was significant in many ways. It was the only Bobcat victory in the Cat-Griz series between 1932 and 1956. It was the final of three Bobcat wins against the University in Butte and the only one at Butte High's Naranche Stadium, and it was the only win for Bobcat head coach Clyde Carpenter.
But it certainly wasn't the only win in this series for Carpenter, a singular figure in the long history of this rivalry. The South Dakota native starred for the Grizzlies from 1928-30, finishing with a 1-1-1 record as a Silvertip player, and taking over as head coach at Billings Senior High from 1932-41 he won five football and one basketball state championships. From Billings he returned to his alma mater in 1942. Many college football programs not affiliated with military training programs discontinued operations before the 1942 season due to loss of male students to the war effort, but UM gave it a go. The Grizzlies finished 0-8 against a difficult Pacific Coast Conference schedule, and Carpenter served in the U.S. Navy as a commissioned officer from 1943-46.
The announcement of his appointment at Montana State in January 1946 came with no apparent fuss over hiring a former Grizzly, instead focusing on his excellent career at Billings Senior and also mentioning one year as a professional player, probably the semi-pro ranks during the fall of 1931 after his graduation from the University.
"Carp" coached four seasons at Montana State, and his teams enjoyed some tremendous achievements. In 1946 he led the Bobcats to the program's first-ever post-season berth. Montana State tied New Mexico 13-13 in the Harbor Bowl. The 1947 squad accomplished something almost as rare by topping the Grizzlies for the first time since 1932. It had to be an amazing feeling for a man who once played against the Bobcats for their arch-rivals. He finished his Bobcat career with a 13-20-2 record, leaving after the 1949 season.
The next leg of Carpenter's adventure, according to one account, took him to the University of Tennessee as an assistant coach, but in 1952 he became the head football coach at Gallatin County High in Bozeman. In 1956 he became athletic director at Glasgow High, leaving that post in 1964 to become the superintendent of schools in Lake County. He held that post until his death in Missoula in 1971.
To this day, Carpenter remains the only man who knows the feeling of playing football at one of the Treasure State's major universities and working as head coach at the other, and the only man who seved as head coach at both.
BONUS NOTE: One of the spectators in attendance at the 1947 contest was Montana State band director Lou Howard. While the leader of a college's marching band at an important game wouldn't necessarily draw attention, this day marked the 50th time Howard had witnessed a Cat-Griz game... in the 50th matchup. His Montana Boys' Band played at the Montana Hall cornerstone ceremony, and he witnessed the rivalry's first game in 1897 as a student at the College. After his graduation worked in Butte from 1900-03 as an assistant manager at Western Union. In 1904 he accepted a position leading the University's band in Missoula, and one year later returned to his alma mater as an assistant professor and became "bandmaster" in 1907. He grew the school's band from eight members in his first year in charge into a group that annually toured the state and was by every account a tremendous point of pride "on the hill." Howard remained a beloved member of the Montana State and Bozeman communities, and Howard Hall on the MSU campus is named in his honor.
DOUBLE BONUS: UM fullback Jack O'Loughlin carried eight times for 43 yards and a touchdown. His brother Jim rushed seven times for 28 yards for the Bobcats. Zupan's 56 yards led all players, coming on nine carries. Coming to the Bozeman campus from his hometown of Missoula, O'Loughlin graduated with a mechanical engineering degree
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2014 - MSU 23, Weber State 13
2008 - Eastern Washington 34, MSU 17
2003 - MSU 26, at Weber State 3
2001 - at Washington State 53, MSU 28
1997 - MSU 31, Cal State Northridge 20
1986 - MSU 27, Northern Arizona 19 HC
1980 - Idaho 14, MSU 6
1975 - MSU 19, at Idaho State 7
1969 - Weber State 53, MSU 3
1958 - MSU 17, Idaho State 6 HC
1952 - at Colorado College 40, MSU 12
1947 - MSU 13, UM 12 at Butte
1930 - UM 13, MSU 6 at Butte
1924 - MSU 31, Centerville (Butte) 0
1923 - Denver 7, MSU 6
1919 - MSU 43, Montana Tech 0
1902 - MSU 21, Montana Tech 6
October 18
SPOTLIGHT: Winning the Cat-Griz football game has been about many things through the year - bragging rights, gaining a recruiting advantage, settling friendly wagers, In 1947, according to the Montana Exponent, it was about quiet.
"(It) took just two hours to bring to a halt all the noise that has ... become a tradition of the "Range Riders" from the University," the Exponent chronicled. Noise from "the 15 year jinx" that had enveloped the Bobcats since the team's 1932 win had become expectedly loud, and only grew until the third quarter of that 1947 Copper Bowl in Butte High's Naranche Stadium.
Jack O'Loughlin, the brother of Bobcat Jim O'Loughlin, opened the scoring for the University, plunging into the end zone from the two-yard line, but Buck Preuninger's missed extra point would look large. Strangely, Jack O'Loughlin's touchdown was set up by his own long punt return, which originated on the toe of his brother. After Bill Boston recovered a Grizzly fumble the Cats moved to UM's four-yard line. Gene Bourdet's "short dump pass" to Harry Perrigo and the ensuing PAT by former Grizzly Barney Berger nailed the PAT and the Cats had a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Another Bobcat with brotherly roots in the Copper Bowl made the game's next big play. Bill Zupan, whose brother Al had starred for the Cats a decade earlier before perishing in the war effort, returned a short Grizzly punt to the three-yard line, and fullback John Heine steamrolled into the end zone for the touchdown. The PAT failed after a penalty moved MSC back 15 yards, but the Cats led 13-6. A flurry of possession changes gave UM the ball, and on a fourth down Radokich caught a 58-yard pass for a touchdown. With the game in the balance, UM again missed the extra point. Bill Clawson told Zupan that he got a hand on it, and the lead was preserved. One more Grizzly drive ended near midfield on a fourth-down stop and the Bobcats ran out the clock for the victory.
Montana State's 13-12 win in 1947 was significant in many ways. It was the only Bobcat victory in the Cat-Griz series between 1932 and 1956. It was the final of three Bobcat wins against the University in Butte and the only one at Butte High's Naranche Stadium, and it was the only win for Bobcat head coach Clyde Carpenter.
But it certainly wasn't the only win in this series for Carpenter, a singular figure in the long history of this rivalry. The South Dakota native starred for the Grizzlies from 1928-30, finishing with a 1-1-1 record as a Silvertip player, and taking over as head coach at Billings Senior High from 1932-41 he won five football and one basketball state championships. From Billings he returned to his alma mater in 1942. Many college football programs not affiliated with military training programs discontinued operations before the 1942 season due to loss of male students to the war effort, but UM gave it a go. The Grizzlies finished 0-8 against a difficult Pacific Coast Conference schedule, and Carpenter served in the U.S. Navy as a commissioned officer from 1943-46.
The announcement of his appointment at Montana State in January 1946 came with no apparent fuss over hiring a former Grizzly, instead focusing on his excellent career at Billings Senior and also mentioning one year as a professional player, probably the semi-pro ranks during the fall of 1931 after his graduation from the University.
"Carp" coached four seasons at Montana State, and his teams enjoyed some tremendous achievements. In 1946 he led the Bobcats to the program's first-ever post-season berth. Montana State tied New Mexico 13-13 in the Harbor Bowl. The 1947 squad accomplished something almost as rare by topping the Grizzlies for the first time since 1932. It had to be an amazing feeling for a man who once played against the Bobcats for their arch-rivals. He finished his Bobcat career with a 13-20-2 record, leaving after the 1949 season.
The next leg of Carpenter's adventure, according to one account, took him to the University of Tennessee as an assistant coach, but in 1952 he became the head football coach at Gallatin County High in Bozeman. In 1956 he became athletic director at Glasgow High, leaving that post in 1964 to become the superintendent of schools in Lake County. He held that post until his death in Missoula in 1971.
To this day, Carpenter remains the only man who knows the feeling of playing football at one of the Treasure State's major universities and working as head coach at the other, and the only man who seved as head coach at both.
BONUS NOTE: One of the spectators in attendance at the 1947 contest was Montana State band director Lou Howard. While the leader of a college's marching band at an important game wouldn't necessarily draw attention, this day marked the 50th time Howard had witnessed a Cat-Griz game... in the 50th matchup. His Montana Boys' Band played at the Montana Hall cornerstone ceremony, and he witnessed the rivalry's first game in 1897 as a student at the College. After his graduation worked in Butte from 1900-03 as an assistant manager at Western Union. In 1904 he accepted a position leading the University's band in Missoula, and one year later returned to his alma mater as an assistant professor and became "bandmaster" in 1907. He grew the school's band from eight members in his first year in charge into a group that annually toured the state and was by every account a tremendous point of pride "on the hill." Howard remained a beloved member of the Montana State and Bozeman communities, and Howard Hall on the MSU campus is named in his honor.
DOUBLE BONUS: UM fullback Jack O'Loughlin carried eight times for 43 yards and a touchdown. His brother Jim rushed seven times for 28 yards for the Bobcats. Zupan's 56 yards led all players, coming on nine carries. Coming to the Bozeman campus from his hometown of Missoula, O'Loughlin graduated with a mechanical engineering degree
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2014 - MSU 23, Weber State 13
2008 - Eastern Washington 34, MSU 17
2003 - MSU 26, at Weber State 3
2001 - at Washington State 53, MSU 28
1997 - MSU 31, Cal State Northridge 20
1986 - MSU 27, Northern Arizona 19 HC
1980 - Idaho 14, MSU 6
1975 - MSU 19, at Idaho State 7
1969 - Weber State 53, MSU 3
1958 - MSU 17, Idaho State 6 HC
1952 - at Colorado College 40, MSU 12
1947 - MSU 13, UM 12 at Butte
1930 - UM 13, MSU 6 at Butte
1924 - MSU 31, Centerville (Butte) 0
1923 - Denver 7, MSU 6
1919 - MSU 43, Montana Tech 0
1902 - MSU 21, Montana Tech 6
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